Wednesday, February 21, 2007

You know, I've found it so hard not to compare Cara's milestones with those of other babies born in the same month as her or even her big sister. I don't know why though 'cause I was so relaxed with Caitlin and had the whole, "She'll do it when she's ready" attitude but with Cara, I'm much more nervous, go figure. Once again, my worry was unfounded. About two months ago, Cara mastered rolling over from tummy to back and I was anxiously awaiting the day when she would roll over consistently from back to tummy and she really only did it once and then stopped, rolling halfway, twisting herself all up but, not rolling over. So, I've been giving her tons of time on the floor with her favorite toys just out of reach and she was oh, so close. Naturally, the day that I go out for a counseling appointment and to have some Mom-ME time, she rolls over not once, not twice but three or four times! So, we can officially write that down in her baby book--one more developmental milestone met, right on! You go baby!She is also sitting up unassisted & we will try sitting up in a shopping cart soon. I can't believe how fast she is growing & changing. She is a no longer a little, motionless baby but rather a blossoming little tyke.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I found this on history.com, it's a fun hodgepodge of Valentine's Day facts. Hope that you all have a wonderful day & tell all the wonderful people in your lives that you love them. I have two cute little valentine's this year...Caitlin & Cara! Caitlin made out some valentines for family memebers, even signing a "C" on each one. She had a blast choosing one for each person and then handing them out this morning.

Here is what my parents got me:It has a significance to me, as of late, because a friend quoted a verse that talked about faith the size of a mustard seed...that even if you had that little bit of faith, nothing was impossible.

Fun Valentine's Day Facts---There are many opinons as to who was the original Valentine, with the most popular theory that it was a clergyman who was executed for secretly marrying couples in ancient Rome. In any event, in 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor St. Valentine. Through the centuries, the Christian holiday became a time to exchange love messages and St. Valentine became a patron saint of lovers. In the 1840s, Esther Howland, a native of Massachusetts, is given credit for sending the first Valentine cards. The spirit of love continues as valentines are sent with sentimental verses and children exchange valentine cards at school.Looking for Love- 188 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)- Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine's Day a procrastinator's delight. (Source: Hallmark research)- Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine's Day by purchasing a greeting card. (Source: Hallmark research)- 904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.Be Mine- 2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.- 147,300 marriages are performed in Nevada during 2005. So many couples "tie the knot" in the Silver State that it ranked fourth nationally in marriages, even though it's total population that year among states was 35th.Candy is Dandy!- 1,241: The number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2004. These establishments employed 43,322 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments with 136, followed by Pennsylvania with 122. (Source:http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html)- 515 locations produced nonchocolate confectionary products in 2004. These establishments employed 22,234 people.- The total value of shipments in 2004 for firms producing chocolate and cocoa products was $13.9 billion. Nonchocolate confectionery product manufacturing, meanwhile, was a $5.7 billion industry.- 3,467 Number of confectionery and nut stores in the United States in 2004. Often referred to as candy stores, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine's Day.- The per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005 was 25.7 pounds. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year.Flowers- The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2005 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $397 million. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($289 million).- The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2005 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $39 million. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were third in receipts ($39 million)to lilies ($76.9 million) and tulips ($39.1 million).- There were 21,667 florists nationwide in 2004. These businesses employed 109,915 people.Jewelry- There were 28,772 jewelry stores in the United States in 2004. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2006, these stores sold $2.6 billion worth of merchandise.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Must count my blessings in times like this so, here are some GOOD things that have or are happening:

1. I have a job interview for the Youth Librarian job in Pagosa Springs this coming Thursday. I am to have lunch with the director first (small library) and then meet the staff afterwards. I'm not sure if this is a full-fledged interview or just the preliminary, but in either case, I'm totally psyched!

2. In keeping with one of my New Year's Resolutios, I have joined Weight Watchers and am on the plan. I have lost 3 lbs so far and am finding it easy to watch what I'm eating. Thankfully, Weight Watchers is not a restrictive diet, I can have whatever I want, in moderation.

3. Cara has learned how to roll over in both directions. She is better about stomach to back, but has mastered both! :)

4. I have been feeling a resurgance in my faith as of late. I'm not sure what brought it on, but I am totally enveloping it.

5. It has been warm outside! We have finally been lifted out of the Artic temperatures that we've had for awhile.

6. I filed my income taxes and was absolutely floored to find out that I'm expecting a refund from both state and federal...first time in years. Don't worry, I plan to be very responsible with the money. :)

I'm sure there are more things to be thankful for, including my health, my girls and my family & friends, but these are the tops ones on my list for now.

Friday, February 09, 2007

This is going to be pretty hard for me to blog about, but those of you that know me know that I am an open book and will share just about anything with anyone. So, here goes...if I ramble on, please forgive me!So--most of you know that my husband and I are separated and were trying to decide how to proceed from there. Well, last weekend (that's another post in and of itself) solidified our decision to go full force and get divorced. This has been hard for me to swallow because I wasn't ready to totally give up and now, I am feeling a loss of the man that was my husband, even if we do end up being good friends (which is what I hope & pray for)after all is said and done. Originally, we were going to attempt to handle things ourselves, saving lots of money, by proceeding pro se. Well, I'm not exactly sure what changed this, but, I think that right now, we are both working to obtain counsel. I am hoping to be accepted as a pro bono case (shouldn't be too hard considering that I have no income)within the next month thru a legal aid program in my county. In the meantime, I am attempting to make heads or tails out of the mounds of paperwork necessary to file. I am beginning to see why lots of people go to the expense of hiring an attorney. I am finding myself asking "What do I put here?" or "What does THAT mean?" That being said, I am hoping that I can find someone to at least help me complete all of the paperwork and perhaps, too, represent my interests and those of the girls at the hearing. Like I was saying earlier, this hasn't been easy for me to accept. Never in a million years would I have looked into a crystal ball 6 years ago and saw this for my future. I thought that I would be one of those blistfully happy people living the good old American Dream. I am reading a wonderful book given to me by my counselor about how to survive the lost of a love. No, it doesn't deal with death or anything morbid like that but rather that it's okay to feel the way that I do and that I'm going to be okay, at the same time. I have learned that I don't always have to be strong, that I can show that I'm hurt, upset, anger, scared, etc.Okay, that's the first half of what's happened lately. Here is the second part...With the separation came the crumbling of my financial situation as I have been struggling for months (some harder than others) to find a job that will support myself and my daughters. Try as I might to make creditors understand my situation and cut me some slack, some have been better about it than others. One in particular has gone to a total extreme. **let this be a lesson to everyone to ALWAYS read the small print** One creditor, who will reman nameless, has decided that since I cannot pay them and they don't have a kind or sincere bone in their collective body, that they will take me to court to file a judgement against me regarding my past due account. It wasn't totally out of the blue because said creditor had been calling for weeks offering me payment plans and such but, honestly, I did not expect the phone call that came on Thursday. It was from the legal office that represents the creditor to inform me that a claim had been filed against me and that I had until the 23rd of this month to pay $1500 plus commit to a monthly payment or else. Basically, if I didn't pay them ASAP, they would give my case to the legal team (lawyers) to proceed with getting a court order for me to pay them. Words like "wage garnishment, severe penalties, covering their lawyer fees" were spilling out of this guy's mouth. This of course freaked me out. I don't have that kind of money, frankly, who does? I'm not proud of the thoughts that were going through my mind that led to an emergency counseling session to help me sort everything out. My counselor is a wonderful, patient woman who listened to me, allowed me to cry and then, got on the phone to get me some help. I have since learned what could happen if a judgment is issued against me (not as worse as I feared) and also that, I am going to be okay! Bad things happen to good people sometimes, but I firmly believe that this is happening for a reason and that I'm going to come out of everything better for it.I guess that wraps up probably the longest post you've ever read. Thanks for reading!

I just wanted to tell all of you moms out there about a wonderful new site that I just discovered last week and am already hooked on---CafeMom. This site is kind of like MySpace or Facebook just for moms. They just started some Groups (read message boards) and I've found one for inter-racial families, Moms of Babies Born in 2006, weight loss support boards, and the list goes on. I have "met" some wonderful moms that I seem to have lots in common with and it has been fun sharing joys, frustrations and strategies with them. No one knows the challenges of motherhood better than another mother and, I don't know about you, but I certainly could use all the friends that I can get. So, I encourage all of my "mommy friends" to stick there neck out there and explore the site. You do have to create a profile to join but once you do, you can find other moms that live near you, have children the same age or same some common interests. Check it out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Boy am I so glad that I stew things over, over-think or double check things sometimes. Here I was, making plans to go to Denver to interview for the technical services position when it hit me that maybe I might want to remind myself what exactly I would be interviewing for. So, I logged on to their human resources department website and scanned the job duties and such. Scrolling down towards the bottom of the posting, I saw the salary and did a double take--$13.83/hour! Excuse me! Obviously, I must've not been thinking clearly when I applied or confused the salary with that of one of the many other positions I applied for the same day 'cause that so NOT a living wage. So, I had to email my would've-been boss to tell her to withdraw my application. Thank goodness I did this before driving all the way over ther to find out this pitiful salary. See, sometimes it pays to be neurotic.

I thought I would let you all know about my job search as of late. The time has come for me to find gainful employment as I have started to get those threatening phone calls from creditors. Granted, I had been looking before now, just not as hard. Currently, I have applications and resumes in all over the state of Colorado, seriously. I just applied for two more library positions, one in Pagosa Springs (south and east of here, near Durango) as a Youth Services Librarian and another in Parachute (east of here along I-70) for the same position. I was amazed that neither require a MLS and that the pay is decent. I also got an interview for next week at Regis University in Denver. I applied a week or so ago for a technicial services position there. So, it looks like I will be making the trek over the mountains to see if this is something that I'd want to do. There are a lot of unknowns (housing, child care, etc), but I'm going to cross those bridges when I get to them. First step, get a sassy new interview outfit and hair cut to impress the big wigs! Wish me luck. I am hoping for more calls regarding interviews soon. Imagine this, I may actually get to CHOOSE which job I want...totally foreign concept. I have lost count as to how many applications/resumes I have it, but could list all of the cities (but I won't, too boring). So, it looks like I may actually be able to get on my feet soon, which would be wonderful.

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About Me

I'm currently picking up the pieces of my so-called life and building a better future for myself and my two daughters. I am a single mom who is trying to juggle the demands of working outside of the home with the circus acts of parenthood. On a good day, I am a: mom, daughter, sister, friend, coach, counselor, event planner, secretary, taxi driver, nurse, emergency manager, short order cook, teacher, tutor, volunteer, playmate, human jungle gym...you get the idea.